Tay, are you guys ok ?

[karynnj]

I know you've posted that you are near Danvers in the past.

[Noisy Democrat]

1. What are you talking about? n/t

[wisteria]

2. There was a chemical explosion there last night. It was felt for miles.

I don't think there were injuries though.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15847839/

[TayTay]

3. Fine, thanks. My family is fine too!

I live now about 35 miles away from that, but my Mom and two brothers live very close. My Mom, sound sleeper that she is, missed the whole damn thing. Apparently, the explosion and the tremors from it were so big that people in Maine and New Hampshire felt it. My Mom, who lives nore more than 2 miles from ground zero of this explosion, slept through the whole thing. (One of my NH brothers called her this morning. "Ma, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine, why?" "Oh your town is blowing up, thought it might have woke you or something." Tough old broad, let me tell ya.)

On of my brothers lives 3/4rds of a mile from where the explosion took place (near the Danvers Port area.) He was on his way home from his night job in Boston (he tends bar at a place on Comm Ave) and he saw all the fire engines and whatnot racing over. My sister-in-law was at home with the kids and she thought her house was going to fall down, that's how bad it was shaking. (Inspections will be needed to see if anything is really broken. So far, so good, everything works, so it might not be too bad.)

One of my brothers is a police officer in Danvers. He wasn't on duty last night, but was called in this morning. He is assigned to officially photograph the scene for the record, so he will be on duty all day today, tonight and tomorrow. (At least.) I will get the 'real story' of what happened from this brother, when he has time.

Thank you for asking. There was an incredible amount of damage. Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt. (There was no night shift working when the chemical plant blew up and residents got mostly cuts from flying glass.) It's all massive property damage and dislocated people. (Which is sad enough before a holiday. I will look through my pantry and closet and see what I can donate for relief.)

[beachmom]

4. Glad to hear that you and your family are safe.

What a horrible thing to happen. I definitely would like to know what the cause was.

[karynnj]

5. Glad to hear that you and your extended family are fine

Your mom sounds amazing. It must have been terrifying for your brother returning into that mess with his family there. It is great that there was no night staff and that, bad as it is, the it was limited to property damage and dislocation.

[wisteria]

6. I am happy to hear everyone is safe. Your mother sounds like quit

a woman.

[rox63]

9. I'm so glad your family is ok

I was thinking about you as I watched the local morning news today. I know you are a safe distance away. But I didn't know if your family still lived in Danvers or not. I'm so glad to hear that they are all safe.

I haven't seen the national news today, so I wasn't aware this had been reported nationally. They pre-empted all the network morning morning shows around here to report on the situation in Danvers. (I'm on vacation from work this week, which is how I managed to catch the local coverage.)

[sandnsea]

12. Well holy crap - I sleep in

and all hell breaks lose! First Beachmom, and now this. Glad everybody is okay, holy cow.

[Blaukraut]

7. it woke me up

Our house shook and the windows rattled some time before 3 AM, so I jumped out of bed, told hubby to get up and go check thebasement to see if the furnace blew up. I told him I swore that I had heard an explosion or possibly a plane crash.
When we didn't hear emergency sirens for a while we went back to sleep, shrugging it off.
Hubby then saw what happened on the news early this morning and told me.
We live about 25 miles from Danvers/Danversport, where the explosion occurred.
Amazingly, nobody got seriously injured, despite a whole block of buildings being leveled.

[ProSense]

8. I didn't even know about the explosion.

Glad everyone is okay!

[wisteria]

10. Oh my gosh, that must of been a jolt for you both.

That was some explosion.

[sandnsea]

13. A whole block of buildings!!??

Well I guess I need to turn on the news. :silly:

My gosh you guys, big :hug:

[Island Blue]

11. Glad everyone seems to be okay!

This sounds a lot like the chemical plant explosion that happened a few months ago in Apex, NC near Raleigh. Yikes!

[politicasista]

14. Glad everyone is ok

:hi:

[TayTay]

15. Pictures and stuff

This was really, really bad. I so glad no one was seriously injured. Those good folks and the small businesses that went poof are going to need some federal help. (Good thing we have a great delegation on the Congress. LOL! ) Romney was on site touring the damage.

http://www.boston.com/news/specials/local/danvers_explosion/

Danvers explosion registers on Richter scale

By Sarah Kneezle and Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondents

The explosion this morning at a chemical plant in Danvers shot a tower of fire hundreds of feet in the air, rattled windows 20 miles away in Boston and could be felt as far away as New Hampshire.

The blast released such a massive amount of energy, in fact, it registered a 0.5 on the Richter scale at the Boston College observatory, almost 30 miles away in Weston.

While that is only the equivalent of a very small earthquake, scientists said it was still an extraordinary feat for an explosion in which most of the force was released upwards, into the air.

"It was such a huge explosion, I'm not surprised at all that the seismic energy went into the ground and we were able to detect it," said Dave Ebel, a professor of geophysics at Boston College. He explained that, "most of the energy went up into the air resulting in objects being thrown up in the air and blowing out windows. The airwave does the most damage."

[TayTay]

16. Sen. Kerry was on-site tonight, doing his job

and seeing if the good people affected by this disaster needed federal assistance. He expressed his willingness to work to make sure that the area got the help it needed and that the branches of the federal govt that should be there are there, like the EPA, and are doing their jobs.

It was nice to see him there so quickly. (But safely. He obviously waited to be invited in, after the First Reponders thought it was safe and that news cameras and such wouldn't hapmer their efforts.) The Senator was also there to thank everyone for their work today, on what was a very difficult day for that town.

Thanks! I do know people affected by this catastrophe. It's nice to know that someone is helping and watching their backs. These are just little mom and pop businesses, but they mean the world to the folks involved. I am very happy to see that in the new Congress, people like them can get help when they need it.

[TayTay]

17. Check out this pic!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/25/danvers_begins_assessing_damage/

That's my brothers, the one with out the helmut on. He was in the hazmat suit and you can see the camera he had attached to the hazmat suit.

Wow! Front page on Boston.com

Huh, he's the only one whose belt actually fits across his waist. LOL!

I'm so glad they had the hazmat suits. After the EPA said tht lower Manhattan was safe at 9/11 and it wasn't, you can't trust Bush's EPA.

[globalvillage]

18. That's your bro?

How cool! I hope he put his respirator on before he went in.

[TayTay]

19. One of them, yup

First Responder. They did good work that day. Nice to know that there is someone in the Congress who has their back and their interests at heart.

[whometense]

21. He looks like you,

a little. :-) Family resemblance, anyway.

[karynnj]

20. Wow - cool that he made the cover of the newspaper

The pictures of Danvers show so much damage.